Sir

The European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) is one of the organizations that award postdoctoral fellowships in molecular biology. The fellowships are funded by the 21 member states of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC). Recipients have to move to a different (usually European) country for the period of the fellowship.

It is obviously important to know if these fellowships prove successful in a science career. Another question is whether the fellows remain in the country they visited or return home.

EMBO has therefore carried out a survey in which EMBO fellows from 1984-85 (approximately 200 in all) were traced by a Medline search of recent publications or followed by direct contact with the receiving institute for the fellowship or with their original home institute. The use of Medline as a primary screen for the fellows ensured that there was not a bias in favour of those who had been successful and therefore were more likely to respond to questionnaires. Given that more than 10 years had elapsed since the award of the fellowships, it was expected that the data obtained would be of relevance to their final career path. Eighty-seven per cent of the fellows were traced. Of these, 88 per cent were visibly involved in research (that is, had publications cited in Medline in the past two years) and 7 per cent were in industry.

Of particular relevance to EMBO and to the EMBC is the fact that 73 per cent of the fellows had returned and were working in their home country. This figure is particularly notable, because 29 per cent of those who received fellowships in those years carried out their research in laboratories outside Europe.

The quality of the positions of the fellows was also analysed. Eighty per cent had permanent jobs, of whom 36 per cent were in a professorial post or its equivalent in their home country. One final aspect of the survey is that it showed that the careers of the female fellows were indistinguishable from, and as successful as, those of the men.

The results of this survey reinforce EMBO's long-held belief that its fellowships contribute significantly to the scientific life of the country from which the fellow comes, and that those selected as EMBO fellows are of a very high calibre, judging by their subsequent career paths. A more detailed report providing the statistics summarized here is available on the EMBO website: http://www.EMBO.org